Lemon Cupcakes, Time to Bake!

I can’t say that loving cupcakes is something unique to me. It’s seem that within the past few years it’s become a craze… and for good reason. They’ve even gone as far as giving my favorite mini-sized confection multiple TV shows (which always ends up with me running to the cupboards to scrounge something that looks half as delectable). My sister is soon to be 13 (ugh! When did that happen?!) and I have influenced her to jump on the cupcake train. So whenever we can we plan out our next scrumptious cupcake baking extravaganza!!! Here is our most recent, and possibly most favorite, cupcake baking adventure!

Lemony Cupcakes with Fresh Raspberry Frosting

*derived from lemon cupcake recipe from allrecipes.com

1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
grated zest of 2 lemons and juice of 1 lemon
1 cup milk, divided

 Preheat oven to 375 F and line 24 muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest with a mixer until  fluffy. Beat  the eggs in one at a time the beat in the vanilla.

Stir together the baking powder, flour, and salt. Combine the butter mixture in with the flour mixture one-third at a time, alternating with half the milk and half the lemon juice after each of the first 2 additions of flour. Beat until just combined.

Fill the prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes, until springy to the touch. Let cool completely before frosting. Makes 2 dozen.

Raspberry Frosting

1 cup fresh raspberries (or thawed from frozen)
1 cup butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar

In the bowl of a food processor, puree the raspberries until smooth.In a medium bowl, beat the butter and half the sugar until smooth. Add the raspberry puree, then more sugar until you have a fluffy, spreadable consistency.